Friday, May 6, 2011

"Save library as template" link is missing in SharePoint site

Some of the document libraries and list, "Save library as template" link is hidden by default. If you go to "View All Site Content" and have a look at the description next to each library/list, the description that says "This system library was created by the Publishing feature.." will have the "Save library as template" link hidden.

This behaviour is by default, however we have a workaround for this. Go to the "Document Library Settings" page. You should see the URL address like this ".../listedit.aspx?List={GUID}", change the "listedit" to "savetmpl" and the URL look like this "../savetmpl.aspx?List={GUID}", now you will be able to save the library as a template.

This method is not recommended, but it works. If you have any workflow bound to the library then you may have some issues,but works fine if you just want to create a template for document settings, Columns and views.

There are scenarios where you may see a library in a site with the publishing feature enabled.Here you may find that the link to delete the library is missing.The reason for this is that on creation the library has been set as False for the property AllowDeletion.

It is obviously possible to delete the library completely using PowerShell.The approach of updating the AllowDeletion property to True and then deleting the library through the browser.